


As a Thread Spun

by xDinahQueenx



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-27
Updated: 2013-08-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 19:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/943788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xDinahQueenx/pseuds/xDinahQueenx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>She'd been so important to him; if he was truthful she was still important to him. He couldn't imagine going if it hadn't been her. </i>
</p><p> </p><p>  <i>But if it was Elle then it was personal and he had to at least try. If she was in danger, he'd promised to always be there for her.</i></p><p>Twisted_Slinky made some beautiful artwork <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/940144">here</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	As a Thread Spun

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2013 het big bang on livejournal.

_"_ _When a lost loved one appears before you, it's your brain that fights it, not your heart.”_

_-Mitch Albom_  
  
Aaron was woken up in the middle of the night, the call coming in at just around three in the morning, like it had been for the last four nights with the same 415 area code as before. But when he'd tried to call back, this night and all the others, he'd received a "This number is no longer in service" message which didn't make sense. He thought that maybe the phone couldn't receive incoming calls. But the real question was: why did they keep hanging up after the second ring?

Was it a consistent wrong number? He wasn't sure. All he had deduced so far was that the call was coming from California. It seemed someone accidentally calling his cell phone number in Virginia was unlikely. If it hadn't happened so many days in a row, he might have believed that. But the truth was that Aaron was becoming concerned with the calls.

It wasn't like he had not been the victim of a stalker before and considering how he was something in the public eye with his career, he wasn't so sure that ignoring it was a good course of action. There was no need to get anyone else involved, or to put a rush on it, so the following morning while he was eating breakfast with Jack, he asked Penelope to look in to it.

Mid-day, when he'd gotten back in from being at the park with Jack, he'd received an e-mail back from Penelope, telling him that it was a pay phone in San Francisco, outside of a motel on Geary St. She had confirmed what he'd thought, that it didn't receive incoming calls, and of course there was no real way to trace who was calling.

And the following night, he'd stayed up, forcing himself as he nodded off, trying to catch who it was- so he answered on the first ring. 

There was traffic in the background and the sound of breathing. Then the click of someone who had been startled. It left Aaron feeling even more confused. Was he being stalked? He sought out other signs of it, trying to see if anything had changed. But his mail and e-mail stayed very much the same.

The calls stopped for a week.

But one night, the phone rang again and Aaron tried to ignore it. But it didn't cut off after the second ring and he clicked the button to answer and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" He said, nervous.

The girl on the other end was tearful, "You don't know me and I'm sorry to bother you but I don't know who else to turn to anymore." Aaron went from being half-asleep to fully awake in absolutely no time, sitting up in his bed and clicking on the bed side lamp.

"I wasn't even supposed to call you, she told me not to, begged me really but this is all getting out of control and I need your help," The woman said, her voice wavering, hiccoughing with her tears on the phone. 

"You need to tell me your name and what's wrong, I'm sure I can help you," Aaron replied, his voice calm, the sleepiness cleared from it as he grabbed his laptop off of the floor beside him and powered it on. In case he needed to write down information. Not that he was sure this was something serious.

"My name is Annie and you're the only number in her cell phone. But something has happened to her, I'm sure of it. She mentioned that someone at the bar had been coming on to her too strong and she joked she was afraid he was going to kidnap her and now she's gone." The woman sounded near hysterical and Aaron frowned.

"You have to slow down," Aaron said, "Who has been kidnapped? You should be calling your local police department, if your friend knows me, she would know-" Aaron was interrupted by the woman.

"She said not to call you!" Her voice was high and hysterical, "But it was a cop who was harassing her and I don't know what to do. I need someone to help me, she can't be gone. Please, please come and help me." The woman begged and Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Please, I'll be at the Geary Parkway Motel, please come! I think Elle's life depends on it." And then the line went dead. Aaron swore softly and immediately called up Dave. He probably wouldn't have worried about it, simply called the local police department and sent them to the hotel. But there was that name and Aaron wasn't so stupid as to not have put it together immediately.

There was only one Elle that he knew that would have his personal cell phone number, after all these years. It made his blood run cold, his heart hammer in his chest. Because even after all this time, it was still Elle and she was still so… he didn't have words. She'd been so important to him; if he was truthful she was still important to him. He couldn't imagine going if it hadn't been her.

But if it was Elle then it was personal and he had to at least try. If she was in danger, he'd promised to always be there for her. His hands were almost shaking as he dialed Dave's number. It was late, he knew, but Dave answered on the third ring, rather irritably.

"What?" Dave snapped at him and other times, Aaron probably would have laughed at that, but he was already moving around the room, packing, trying to get things in order to check out the mysterious phone call.

"Do you think you could come and watch Jack for a few days?" He asked, "I need to check something out involving a possible kidnapping case. It's not a BAU case yet, but I'd feel remiss if I didn't go."

"Sure," Dave said, sounding somewhat less annoyed, but not by much. "I'll be there as soon as possible. Take as much time as you need."  
  
&             &             &  
  
It wasn't that difficult for Aaron to find the motel, though booking a flight was considerably more of a challenge. But he reached the hotel right around four in the morning, feeling exhausted as the lack of sleep was catching up to him. The street was still relatively busy as he stepped out of the cab and shouldered his bag higher.

It wasn't just the lack of sleep- he had lived with that before. But the fact that the person he was racing too, running too, was Elle, essentially. He hadn't… well, he had thought about her. Not directly, almost always when his thoughts were drifting and she would pass to the forefront of his mind. Sometimes it'd be without any provocation; sometimes he would smell a certain scent, or see a certain shade of hair or skin and think on her.

He saw a woman- he assumed was Annie- and he pulled himself from the mire of his own mind. Away from Elle; he had to focus.

She was pacing in front of a payphone, her blonde hair a mess and her mascara running, splotchy redness on her cheeks and around her eyes leading him to believe she'd been crying recently.

"Annie?" Aaron asked, raising his voice and she lit up slightly, all but throwing herself in to his arms. He was taken aback. The girl couldn't be more than eighteen and he wasn't sure why she was hugging him.

"You look just like your picture," She said when she pulled back, pulling out a folded picture of him from a high profile capture of a serial killer in San Francisco several months ago. The caption was cut off, one half of him missing- in the picture, JJ had been half in front of him.

"We should go back to her apartment; I didn't touch anything yet, so you can take a look at the scene." Annie tucked her hair behind her ear and started leading Aaron towards a beat-up old car parked on the street. Aaron was nervous; he had his gun, he could fight her off if he needed to, but the whole situation made him uncomfortable.

He had learned to trust his instincts. Even for Elle… it would have to be verification before trust.

"I came out here, but I need more information before I get involved and before I get in to a car with you. You say you know me, or rather, that Elle knows me… but I can't just insert myself in to the investigation without the locals inviting me. And I can't ask them to do that if I don't even know the case."

Annie stopped short and crossed her arms over her chest as she turned to look at him. She frowned and then breathed out slowly, reaching up to brush her hair out of her eyes.

"I work at this bar, Cherry Bounce, I'm a waitress there and Elle is pretty popular with the patrons," Annie explained. "She's been working there since before I was hired, but she has a lot of regulars, people who come in and specifically stay because she's working. And there was this one guy… um… Ricky I think his name was."

Annie looked thoughtful, "I remember one time Elle carded him even though he was super obviously old enough to be in there and I think she wrote his name down somewhere. But I only remember he might have been called Ricky." Annie scrubbed a hand over her chin and frowned as she looked up at Aaron.

"There were… some problems before. She had um… one time she had to chase him off because he was creeping on Nae-Nae." Annie looked incredibly distressed and Aaron frowned as well.

"You need to walk me through it from the beginning," Aaron said, his tone gentle, and Annie shook her head- blonde hair flying as she did. Her face screwed up with concentration, nose wrinkling, eyes closing. Her mascara was clumped and running from the tears, and there was a subtle tremble in her lower lip.

Aaron reached out to take her hands in his own.

"I promise it will be alright and that I will help you," Aaron said, squeezing her hands lightly. Annie seemed to take comfort in that and she clutched at Aaron's hands as though they were a lifeline. She steadied her breathing and opened her eyes again.

"It started before I started working there, I think," Annie said, worrying her lower lip briefly, "I remember one of the other guys, a bouncer um… Char said he used to walk Nae-Nae to her car at night because of this cop who didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. It was a big deal… so like, eventually Nae-Nae left working at the bar. Then Char was shot in an unrelated incident and James took over as bouncer, but he's sort of… well…" She shrugged.

Aaron's brow rose. Annie took her hands back to make a vague gesture.

"I think he's blowing the owner for the job because he's this thin, little wispy dude and he's really bad at bouncing people." She looked away from Aaron, "But Elle I think she used to be like in the CIA or something because she's really kick ass and I've seen her toss guys from the bar without any help, but you know how like… well, I don't know."

Annie looked around some more.

"See the thing is once Nae-Nae left, Ricky turned his attention Elle and she rebuffed him and I think… he might have been like… stalking her when I was hired in. I remember thinking how tough and awesome Elle was but she always walked out to her car with someone, normally, uh… Garret? He was a regular, MMA fighter, sort of a local-ish champion. But then Garret… well, he was found dead too."

"What?" Aaron said, "And the police aren't looking in to this?" Aaron asked, brow furrowing, "Are you sure Char's was an unrelated incident?" This seemed unlikely.

"Well, Ricky was the responding officer, because I heard him mention the case to Elle, it was a drug overdose, I think? I really… don't have all the details. And I really don't know anything about Char."

"What about the first girl?" Aaron asked. Annie shrugged again.

"Last I heard she was working at Stars and Strips, which is like… this topless bar? But I've never been there." Annie wrung her hands together nervously and looked towards her car.

Aaron tallied up the crimes- an apparent kidnapping, stalking, a potential murder, a potential assault.

"Alright, take me to the crime scene," Aaron said. If there was a case, he could call the team out. Aaron slid in to the passenger side of Annie's car and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Maybe he should call Dave. But instead, he texted Jessie to pick Jack up to take the burden off of Dave, since now he didn't know how long he was going to be out of town.  
  
&             &             &  
  
It wasn't a very long drive from the hotel to Elle's house and because of the late hour, traffic was fairly light. As Annie drove, Aaron watched the street lights roll by as soft rock played quietly on the radio. He hadn't spoken to Elle in years and worry settled like lead in the pit of his stomach.

But now that he was apparently on a mission to save her- how long had she been gone? The first forty-eight hours were the most important and… maybe he was already too late?

"How long has Elle been missing?" Aaron asked, breaking the silence in the car.

"A little over three days, I think," Annie said. "I… I can't be sure, I just… don't know. She didn't show up for work on Tuesday, but I talked to her on the phone on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Wednesday I have… I was busy, so I didn't call her then. I didn't know she didn't show up for work until Thursday when she didn't show up again and Clay asked me if I had seen her. When I called her again, she didn't answer."

Aaron frowned at that, "Three days?" He was incredulous and his heart clenched. That didn't bode well, what he knew of kidnappers. It depended on what he had kidnapped her for, but that long… Aaron didn't want to think about what could have happened already.

Dead or alive; he owed it to Elle to find her.

"I should have called sooner," Annie said, lower lip jutting out in to a pout. She stopped at a nice looking house, the lawn out front was a bit overgrown, and Annie turned towards Aaron in the seat. She ran a hand through her hair, "I just thought she'd be fine, you know. I wasn't thinking because… well, I just wasn't."

Aaron reached out and touched her shoulder gently, comforting.

"This is not your fault; you're a good friend, Annie. You were right to call me," Aaron knew that she was. Even if this turned out to be nothing- he couldn't shake the feeling that it was going to be something. Annie looked like she felt slightly better and she exited the car.

The front door was unlocked. That didn't bode well.

The inside was an absolute mess. The whole place looked tossed, with broken glassware and overturned pictures and flipped furniture. It reminded him of Elle, just the same. The style of decoration similar to what her house back in Virginia had been. With a lot of blue and cream and pictures on the wall of her family

One of the overturned pictures was of the BAU- Aaron was standing too close to her in the picture, his hand on her shoulder, head tilted in towards her. She was turned, looking at him, with this smile on her face. The others were there too- Jason off by himself and Derek with one arm around Spencer and the other around Penelope, and JJ crouched in front of the three of them with a grin. But he was stuck on himself and Elle in the picture.

Because it was so obvious, looking at this picture, that there had been something there. He wasn't sure how no one else had noticed.

The remembrance- the smell of her perfume and the softness of her hand in his own made his chest clench painfully, and he pushed the thought aside in order to focus on the matter at hand. Something had definitely gone down here. He worried- in the kitchen there was a smear of blood, a bullet hole in one of the walls.

He took a picture of the hole and continued walking through the house.

There wasn't a lot of evidence to be found in the apartment. Not to the naked eye. He knew it would need to be dusted for prints, but there was nothing obvious. There wasn't any other physical evidence. But he grabbed a swab and took a sample of the blood. But he was sure that it was Elle's; that this was how he'd managed to force her compliance and get her from the house.

He'd have to send it to the FBI lab.  
  
&             &             &  
  
Once Aaron had made the determination that there was a case, he knew he needed to bring the team in. He wasn't going to want to explain what was going on, but Elle deserved the best. And Aaron knew that the best was his team. JJ knew the paperwork well enough that she could make sure it tracked as a BAU case, so Aaron wasn't worried about that. He called Penelope, knowing she'd be at the office, and had her recall the rest of the team, giving the address for the hotel that Annie had met him at.

It'd seemed best to make that their base of operations, they hadn't involved the local authorities and judging on Annie's insistence that the stalker- potential kidnapper- was a member of the local police force, he was sure that was a wise decision. Aaron didn't like the waiting game, but there wasn't much he could do without the team, considering now he needed to update them on the case, explain what was going on, and then send them off on their assignments.

The truth of the matter was that Aaron needed his team. Beyond them being good at their job; he needed the support. He'd not thought of Elle much after the first year or so he'd been gone, but there were clearly lingering feelings and this was hitting him rather hard.

The blood in the house was burned in his mind and he kept looking at the picture of the bullet hole, concerned that the worst had already happened and they were looking for Elle's body, rather than Elle herself. It upset him, in this hollow sort of feeling that settled in to his chest. He couldn't quite believe that she might be gone. Sure, he had not seen her in years, but knowing she was out there. Knowing that she had sprung back from her hardship and was making a life for herself had always been a source of comfort to Aaron, when he admitted it to himself late at night when he was alone.

It wasn't an exceptionally long plane ride and soon enough, Dave was knocking on the door to his hotel room with the team in tow. Aaron let them all get settled in, perching on various pieces of furniture, before he spoke.

"A few nights ago I received a call from an unknown number requesting my assistance on a kidnapping case," Aaron started, "Prior to that, I was getting fairly consistent calls from a number with the same area code, which Penelope back tracked to a pay phone in front of this hotel. The woman who called me is named Annie Franklin and she was a co-worker and friend of the victim."

Aaron knew Dave and Emily did not know her, but it was going to be difficult for the rest of the team. Especially Spencer, the two of them had been close. Not close to a point where Aaron had ever had to worry, but Aaron knew this wasn't going to be easy at all.

"According to Annie, she could have been missing for three days," Aaron said. The sighed and decided to just get on with it, better to get it out of the way now. "The victim is a former colleague of ours, Elle Greenaway." Aaron saw Spencer's expression crumble and Derek's brow furrow with that sort of righteous indignation he got whenever members of the team were in trouble. Penelope gasped from the webcam on JJ's laptop and JJ covered her mouth in surprise.

Dave and Emily did not really react, but Aaron hadn't expected them to. Except Dave was eying him curiously, in a way Aaron didn't like. He forged on anyways.

"Now normally this is not the type of case we would work but even though she left us, Elle was still a member of this team and a friend and I think we owe it to her to help save her

"I went to her apartment before and there was blood and a gunshot wound," Aaron continued to explain. "There was evidence of what looked like a struggle and I'm reasonably certain she was taken from her apartment."

Spencer looked concerned, worrying his lower lip, and hands wringing together as he considered the situation. Penelope still looked stricken, even as she started pulling up the information she could about Elle's movements.

"I wasn't able to find it, but Annie said that there was a man named Ricky stalking Elle and that Elle had written his name down somewhere. I went to her house earlier where the crime apparently took place; I didn't look in depth, just enough to determine whether I'd need you here or not." Aaron breathed out a quiet sigh.

"Dave, you and Reid can go look over the crime scene. Prentiss and JJ, if go to the bar where Elle worked and seeing if anyone knows this stalker's full name or a better description of him. Morgan and I will head over to where Annie said a previous stalking victim is working. Garcia, I need you to look in to the deaths of Charles Winston and Garret Phillips."

Aaron felt better, once everyone had a task to go on, it made him feel some modicum of control, even while the rest of him was slipping. Aaron knew that he did not have the option, but he couldn't help but feel he should have been here to protect her. And he also couldn't help but feeling that it was partially his fault. If he had tried harder to help her after the thing with Garner, eased her back in to work better. Had protected her better during the Fisher King case, she might not have left at all.

It was guilt that he was well used to by now and it settled in his stomach like a stone. He had to shake that feeling off too; it was useless to get mired in things he couldn't change rather than focus on bringing Elle back home.  
  
&             &             &  
  
"We found the name of the stalker," Spencer said almost as soon as Aaron and Derek joined them in the hotel room. The interview with the previous stalking victim had not been very fruitful. Aaron was glad that Spencer and Dave had found something. "We looked around Elle's apartment like you said and there was a manila folder hidden between the mattresses." Spencer explained and he opened the folder, spreading the contents out on the table in front of them.

"We think that the UnSub was trying to find this folder and that's why the apartment was such a mess. Judging where the bullet hole and blood was, we think that she might have been incapacitated early. Plus there were papers in the blood which suggests that she was hurt before he started searching around the apartment."

"We thought it would have been some sort of struggle that had caused it, but it didn't seem like just normal damage, there were drawers opened and emptied along with everything else that was tossed." Spencer opened his mouth to continue speaking, though Dave interrupted.

"The point is," Dave said, "This folder is information about the stalker." Aaron flipped through the folder, it had pictures and newspaper articles and handwritten notes in Elle's clean handwriting. He never did understand her notes, with her abbreviations and short hand. He closed the folder again and handed it back to Spencer.

"The people at the bar confirm the information there," JJ told him, nodding to Spencer, "The stalker's name is Richard Jones and he works as a beat cop at the twenty-third precinct. He doesn't have a record and his performance reviews have been exemplary."

"Garcia is getting an address," Emily said and the phone rang almost on cue, with Penelope on the other end. Aaron split the team up; he and Emily would go and check out Jones' house, while JJ and Morgan went to talk with the people who had worked with Jones. Spencer had wanted to keep studying the folder and Dave was staying to help him with that.  
  
Aaron hoped this wasn't another dead-end.  
  
&             &             &  
  
Jones' house was empty when they arrived at it. There were garbage cans in the front yard but there was no car in the driveway. This wasn't entirely surprising as he might have been at work and they could at least glance around the property to see if they could discover anything. Something to give them probable cause to search the house or something of that nature.

It was a long shot and they left without any further information, while they waited to hear back from a judge about a warrant to search the place. But with Penelope's help, it wasn't that difficult to finagle a warrant. There was a judge who she was able to coerce in to doing it. Aaron knew some of her methods flew under what was strictly legal, but he couldn't help but be appreciative in this instance.

With the warrant in hand, they were able to get inside. It was a rather bland looking home. The furniture was nice looking, not expensive, but well cared for.

There were pictures on the walls of Jones, and what Aaron presumed to be his family. It was decorated tastefully, with candles and a few potted plants. Everything had its place; even the magazines seemed to be placed purposefully, arranged on the coffee table in a careful, overlapping row. The vacuum had been run recently; Aaron could see the way the shag carpet stuck up, not yet worn down by foot traffic.

"He seems pretty neat," Emily said from the other room, "I'm thinking maybe ex-military based on the way his bed is made up and his clothes are folded." Aaron joined her in the bedroom, where the neat tucked corners of the bed and the way his shirts were rolled in his drawers suggested that what Emily said had been right.

"Ah, here we go," Emily said, using a pen to push clothes around in the closet. Along with the uniforms for his job as a police officer, a pressed army uniform hung near the back, still with the pins and ribbons on it denoting his service.  
  
"There's nothing here," Emily said after she continued poking around the closet. "If he kidnapped her, I don't think he's holding her here." Emily frowned, shaking her head as she stepped away from the closet. Aaron felt his anger rising. He knew that this guy had her, he just didn't know _where_.  
  
As he and Emily exited the house, Aaron called Penelope.  
  
"I need to dig deep on this guy, Garcia," Aaron said, "I know he has Elle and he has to be keeping her _somewhere_ , so I'm thinking he has to have something. Some other property, some sort of storage unit, whatever you can find." Aaron pressed.  
  
"I will call you as soon as I find anything," Penelope promised, clicking to hang up the phone. The ride back to the hotel was agonizing, the sort of feeling like he couldn't _do_ anything.  
  
Everyone was gathered again, waiting on the call.  
  
"I kept going through the files that Elle had kept on her stalker and it seems like she was close to being able to connect Jones to the death of those two men that Annie had mentioned," Spencer said, sitting next to Aaron in seat by the window.  
  
"I think that was why he graduated to the kidnapping, to get her out of the way," Spencer said, opening the folder so it was half on his lap and half on Aaron's. Aaron glanced down at it.  
  
"She was investigating the murder cases?" Aaron asked. Spencer nodded.  
  
"There are notes in here and I remember from when we worked together the note taking system she used. See, she used a type of abbreviated short hand, but when we'd go over case notes together she'd explain things to me so that I could read through her notes without having to stop to ask her for clarification. It was something we got in to the habit of doing when we-"  
  
"Reid," Aaron interrupted him, trying to keep his cool, the careful control he'd been working at keeping over the last day near to slipping completely.  
  
"Sorry," Spencer apologized, giving him a sheepish look before continuing, "I was reading through the notes and it seemed like she was close to putting it together, how the others were keeping him from the objects of his obsession. But… Hotch…" Spencer looked up at him, hopeful.  
  
"Based on what we know of this man, I don't think he would have hurt Elle. In his own way, he loves her and I think she's smart enough to play along and keep him happy so he doesn't hurt her. I think that she's going to be okay. I think we're going to find her." Spencer was trying to be reassuring.  
  
Aaron didn't feel reassured, though. He patted Spencer on the shoulder anyways and lapsed in to silence as he waited for Garcia to call.  
  
When the phone rang, he didn't even get to say 'go ahead' before Penelope started talking.  
  
"Sir! The UnSub inherited some property outside of town from his grandparents; I sent the address to your phones."  
  
Penelope had barely hung up the phone by the time the team was moving out to the cars.  
  
&             &             &  
  
"Aaron," Dave's voice was gentle and he laid a hand on his shoulder. Aaron did not like the tone of his voice, almost as much as he was sure he wasn't going to like what he was about to say, "I have a good feeling that this is the place where he's holding her, but you have to be prepared for the worst." Dave was frowning, looking up at Aaron with sympathy.

Somehow, Aaron felt as though Dave knew exactly how much Elle had meant to him. And honestly, probably still did mean to him. He swallowed and turned his gaze away from Dave then, watching idly as Spencer pulled on a bullet proof vest.

"I know," Aaron said finally. Dave's frown deepened though and Aaron turned away, shrugging off his suit jacket to put his own vest on. The house was on several acres of land, clear cut for farming, but isolated from everywhere else by a line of trees surrounding the property. They were stationed slightly behind the tree line on a dirt road that led up to the house.

Despite having been in this exact situation a thousand times before, nerves fluttered in Aaron's stomach. What Dave had said was weighing on him. He wanted nothing more than to find Elle safe, he knew she wouldn't be fine, but it had been so many days. The fact that she might be dead was likely and he didn't like to think about it, but he had to steel himself for the possibility.

But there wasn't any sense putting it off any longer and Aaron gathered the team around.

"Alright, Reid, Morgan you take the back. Emily and Dave go through the front, JJ and I can check the garage."

Aaron didn't wait for a response, not that anyone was going to fight about it. He waited for just a moment while they headed for the house and then he turned towards the garage and headed towards it. He had this bad feeling that Dave was in the right. That he needed to prepare for the likeliest outcome.

Beside him, JJ was grim, her gun out and her shoulders set, and her mouth in a tight line. Aaron felt for her, he was feeling a similar way. Having to steel for the worst because there was simply no telling what they might find here. Aaron grabbed the door knob and turned, it went easily and the hinges squeaked as he pushed it open.

There were no lights on inside, but it was illuminated by a few windows near the top of the building streaming sunlight in. There were old tools in the garage, rusted with age and disuse, trash in one corner in old metal cans, and a bench full of photography equipment. There were several film canisters and a stack of envelopes of developed film.

JJ went over to the stack while Aaron clicked his flash light on, examining the rest of the garage for some clue as to where Elle might be.

"These are all of Elle," JJ said in surprise from where she was standing at the table. Aaron frowned and turned towards her, because there were so many envelopes and she carded through them with her gloves on, scattering photos on the bench as she opened each envelope and found another set of shots of Elle.

Aaron moved over to where JJ was and he frowned as he watched JJ go through the photos. Hundreds of candid photos of Elle, obviously unaware that she was being photographed, filled the bench where JJ had dropped each one. It was almost horrifying, seeing her life in flashes like this.

Seeing her at work or on the street, out with friends or with men, when she was sleeping through wispy curtains. Aaron felt a clench in his chest, the same one as before, and he tried to force it aside. If nothing else, Aaron decided, even if they found Elle and she was gone, Aaron would catch this son of a bitch.

"There's nothing in here," JJ said. Aaron shined his flashlight around and noticed that there was a lot of dust around the floor, but there was a clear path to the bench with the cameras, as well as a pile of rags that looked curiously well stacked. Aaron frowned and moved over to the pile and noticed they were glued together and to the floor when he tried to move them.

They hid the line of a trap door, but Aaron saw it as the latch reflected the beam of his flashlight. "There's a door here," Aaron said to JJ and he motioned her to be silent as he eased it open.

It went smoothly, not making any noise, and there was a definite glow from the basement. Aaron frowned and drew his gun up, starting down the stairs. He heard sounds from below, a sort of wordless moaning. A pained noise, one he recognized and the voice familiar even though the noise was not.

But after the horror of not knowing, the sickening feeling that she could have been dead, Aaron wasn't exactly at his most professional. He took the stairs down two at a time, thumping down on to the ground and holstering his weapon as he saw Elle huddled in the corner, covered with a dirty white blanket, and a cut bleeding on her face.

"She's down here," Aaron called up to JJ and he strode across the basement floor towards her. He knelt down.

"Elle, it's alright, I'm here now," Aaron said.

"H-hotch?" She sounded disoriented and she opened her eyes, blinking rapidly. "No-no you have…" She tried to say something and chains rattled. There were purpling bruises at her neck, radiating red like they were fresh. He started to uncover her, to find what was holding her down.

"Hotch!" JJ's voice was sharp and sudden and there was the sound of a scuffle and he pivoted, still kneeling, in time to see JJ go toppling off the side of the stairs and on to the concrete. Aaron frowned and stood, but where JJ had fallen was in shadow and he raised his gun again, and headed over to where he'd seen her go down.

He heard the distinct sounds of struggling, the sound of something scraping on the floor, and then the area lit up with a muzzle flash. He heard JJ swear loudly and the sound of the gun going off echoed in his ears. He tried to get his bearings; the sound of the gun firing ringing in his ears still, the UnSub came out of the shadows.

Aaron stumbled backwards, but not in enough time to avoid the dizzying blow from the butt of the UnSub's gun. He crumpled to the floor. Pain screamed in his brain and his fingers curled against the cement, groping for his own gun as he tried to blink the dizziness away from his eyes.

Aaron had to get to JJ, had to get to Elle, and damnit. But he wasn't one to back down from a fight and even though he couldn't reach his gun that didn't mean he was helpless. He lowered his center of gravity and aimed for the UnSubs knees, the gun fired somewhere in the air, showering them with debris- wood splinters and insulation.

They grappled and when a dizzying blow caught Aaron in the side of the head. It made his vision swim again, pulsing behind his eyes and jarring him. He struggled with it, trying to catch his bearings, and he felt the cold press of metal to his forehead.  
  
The UnSub yelped, suddenly and Aaron realized the weight that had been on him was gone and he breathed in quickly, focusing on the UnSub, as JJ's arm was around his neck, pulling him backwards. Aaron sat there, trying to rise, but still feeling dizzy.  
  
But JJ had been taking lessons from Derek when it came to fighting and she kept her arm banded tightly and disarmed him, driving him back to the ground on his knees so that she could snap the handcuffs on him. But he struggled too much and he shook her off.  
  
Aaron started to get to his feet while the UnSub scrambled for his gun- and didn't need to be worried as JJ grabbed some pipe from the ground and hit him across the back to keep him down, once she saw he'd grabbed the gun. She knelt down on his back and twisted his arms back behind him to put him in the cuffs.  
  
Aaron didn't even bother brushing the debris off of his clothes or out of his hair as he listened to JJ snap the handcuffs on. Aaron reeled as though he was drunk and he stumbled towards the corner of the room, falling to his knees by Elle's side once more.

It was almost instinct to put his arms around her, to cradle her close. He couldn't stop the way his heart clenched and his throat tightened and he buried his face in to her messy, hair and hugged her even tighter.

"Elle," He croaked out her name, one hand coming up to stroke her hair, to tangle his fingers in her dark hair and just held her tightly. He stroked his hands down her back, moving carefully in case she was hurt. He felt his hands shaking as he stroked his fingers through her hair.

Aaron could feel her breath against his skin and it was impossible to contain himself. As he pulled her in to his arms and held her to him, and felt her _breathe_. He reveled in the fact that she was alive. That he had found her in time. That she was safe and relatively unharmed. Aaron sighed softly, petting her hair. He could feel JJ's eyes on him.  
  
Aaron was unable to care. That she saw him in this vulnerable moment because he was so pleased and so overcome and he needed to have his arms around her.  
  
"You're safe now, I've got you," Aaron said to her, against her ear almost and her arms came around him then. Her grip was tight and he lifted her from the ground, holding her to him. It was almost a princess carry and her arms came around his neck. Aaron heard her, whimpering quietly, that her clothes were torn and tattered. But she looked alright, tired and dirty, but alright. Aaron held her tighter.  
  
He could hear the rest of the team coming and he cleared the emotion from his face, let his expression go back to stern indifference. Aaron loosened his hold on her some, just so it wasn't too obvious. JJ was looking at him with a soft, almost understanding expression.  
  
Aaron ignored it, but he was grateful when she squeezed his shoulder as he headed up the stairs.  
  
"Call an ambulance," Aaron called up when Dave darkened the top of the stairs. There was the glow of a cell phone and he heard Dave chattering, but he was listening more to JJ, behind him. He felt her touching Elle, her knuckles pressed against his shirt where they were holding hands.  
  
Aaron felt relieved as JJ murmured reassurances to Elle. He hated putting her in the ambulance though, letting go.  
  
"You could probably ride with them," JJ told him. Aaron cast a glance at the others, but then he climbed up in with her. He would deal with it all later.  
  
&             &             &  
  
Aaron wanted to hover, to make sure that Elle was alright. He wanted to hold her hand and be right there when she opened her eyes. This desire was driving him up the wall crazy, especially as the Doctor looked over her chart, and a nurse kindly guided him out of the room with a gentle-  
  
"She needs her rest, you can see her when she wakes up."  
  
Aaron didn't like that. Everyone else was still in the waiting room down the hall and Aaron joined them after a minute. But he was unhappy. He paced in the waiting room, drinking a cup of water from a Styrofoam cup and then idly picking at the edge of the cup, flaking white beads of it to the floor. He could feel someone watching him. Probably JJ, since she'd seen the way he'd acted.  
  
Spencer and Derek were telling Emily and Dave about Elle's time with the team. He was only half listening though. Spencer spoke fondly of her and he knew they'd been close. He'd always been jealous, even when he'd been seeing Elle romantically; the openness of their closeness had rubbed him the wrong way. Not in a way that he would have ever said anything, but just the same.  
  
When Spencer began speaking about the time she left, Aaron excused himself to get some air. It was warm outside when he went and the front of the hospital was relatively clear, except for a woman in a wheelchair with balloons tied to her chair, waiting with a nurse for a pick-up. He nodded in greeting and headed off towards the side, away from where the cars would stop.  
  
There was little to do but wait at this point. Aaron hated waiting. Especially because he felt like he'd been waiting for so long to see her again. He'd never really thought to look her up or anything, but she'd always been on his mind, at least peripherally. He'd remember her keenly some nights and the feel of her skin and the brush of her hair. Seeing Elle again had brought all of those buried memories rushing to the surface.  
  
Aaron heard the door slide open again, a soft whoosh of noise, then the presence next to him. He didn't have to look to know it was Dave. He recognized the smell of his cologne; he hadn't changed it in the years they'd known one another. It was comforting in a way.  
  
"Were you involved with this girl, Aaron?" Dave didn't bother with small talk or mincing words. He was very straight to the point.  
  
Aaron weighed the pros and cons of telling the truth. It was to Dave, so he wasn't sure if lying would work exactly, anyways. He crossed his arms over his chest and kept his gaze on the ground, rather than looking at Dave.  
  
He could feel Dave's eyes on him, without looking, he couldn't tell if he was silently condemning him or judging him or something else entirely. Dave's sigh was almost lost in the sounds of traffic.  
  
"Look, Aaron, I'm not here to make some sort of judgment on your relationship with her, or you, or whatever else you're thinking of over there. I just wanted to make sure you were alright," Dave said. Aaron felt Dave's hand on his shoulder and he thought about shrugging it off.  
  
"There was something," Aaron said, "Back when she was on the team."  
  
He paused a beat.  
  
"Ancient history, though." He added. Dave chuckled beside him wryly.  
  
"I can tell you care for her, because I know you, and it's obvious to me. The others- they probably don't, not yet. They are good at figuring things out." Dave squeezed his shoulder. Aaron finally looked at him. Dave was giving him a not quite pitying look, but it was soft and gentle, not a look he'd seen often directed at him. "If you don't want them to figure it out, you need to be more careful."  
  
Aaron gave him a very small smile. He thought about how he'd acted back at the scene, what JJ had witnessed, and wondered if they already knew. Now that Aaron and Dave were both out of the room, they probably felt free to talk about it.  
  
"Thank you," Aaron said. Dave nodded.  
  
"Any time, you know that." Dave's hand slipped from his shoulder. "Are you coming back in?" Aaron shook his head.  
  
"Yes. Thank you for _everything_ ," Aaron stressed the word, because he didn't just mean this talk, but everything. "The rest of you can probably head home." He said as they headed back inside.  
  
&             &             &  
  
Elle was sitting up on the edge of the bed. She looked a little drawn with dark circles under her eyes, but the worst of her cuts were cleaned and bandaged, and she'd been cleaned up in general. Aaron had been in her room every minute they'd allowed it. The team had only just gone home; JJ, Spencer, and Derek had wanted to catch up as well. Elle hadn't been entirely forthcoming.  
  
Dave had said that they could handle it for a few days without him and to take his time. Dave had also said he'd look in on Jack, though Jessie had sent him some e-mailed updates since he'd been here. Aaron settled back in the chair, waffling on whether he should reach out and take her hand or not.  
  
"They said most of the physical injuries were superficial," Aaron said for a lack of anything better to say. Elle was frowning now, her arms crossed over her chest, and her dark eyes were fixed on his face, narrowed. Her foot was bouncing like she was nervous. His words had brought a change to her and she seemed more agitated now. Aaron took notice of that and reached out to her. She pulled back.  
  
"What're you still doing here?" Elle asked, shifting backwards slightly. She was putting distance between them and Aaron could tell. That wasn't a very good sign. Aaron's brow furrowed.  
  
"I wanted to make sure you were alright," Aaron said. Elle's arms tightened around her torso and her jaw went tight. Aaron could see all the ways in which her body language was freezing him out.  
  
"I'm fine, you can go," Elle said. Her tone was clipped. Aaron frowned at her, but he dropped his hands back in to his lap. He didn't understand- not _exactly_. She had been the one who had left him. He wasn't angry, he had _missed_ her.  
  
"Elle," Aaron started.  
  
"Hotch, _don't_ ," Elle said, "You aren't even supposed to be here. I appreciate you finding me, but you don't have to stay. I don't… need you."  
  
Aaron wet his lips.  
  
"I want to help you," Aaron tried again.  
  
"I think you've helped enough."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aaron felt himself getting defensive. Elle had been a part of the team- a part of their family- so even if things had ended _worse_ than they actually had, Aaron would have come out here when she needed him. Not that she seemed to think she did, but Aaron wasn't so sure. Maybe if he'd refused to come out and help, Annie would have gone to the police. But she hadn't before and had disobeyed Elle's instructions.  
  
"You know what I mean," Elle said. "This isn't some big secret, Hotch. We were both there. Well… _I_ was there."  
  
Aaron didn't want to fight, but he felt the familiar strains of an old fight jumping to the forefront of his mind. They hadn't really had this conversation exactly, but a variation on it. In a hospital room not too different from this one. Though those injuries had been a lot graver.  
  
It was not a secret that there had been some feelings of blame, from her, and guilt, from himself. Aaron breathed in slowly. He had to steady himself, because the last thing they needed was for him to blow up. The problem was, how this had all started anyways, was this strange way she got under his skin.  
  
To where all of his normal calm, control got screwed up around her, and his passion had tended to react and expand to hers. The beginning of the end, really, when she had kissed him and he had felt unable to resist her. Aaron didn't try to reach for her again.  
  
Aaron hadn't expected her to just forgive that, if he could have done things differently now, he would have. But perfection vision was only something in hindsight. Aaron did not feel as though he was to _blame_ , exactly. Inadvertently, his actions had caused her harm.  
  
That was something he could be held accountable for.  
  
Elle's head was bent, dark hair forming a curtain around her face. Her shoulders shook slightly.  
  
"You should go," Elle said. Her voice was small and quiet, wavering slightly. Aaron stood, torn between standing his ground and fighting right now, or respecting her wishes. Aaron touched her shoulder gently and she looked up at him. She wasn't crying, exactly, though wetness shone in her eyes and they were rimmed with red.  
  
"For what it is worth, I _am_ sorry," Aaron told her. Elle bit her lower lip.  
  
"I know," Elle said. "Me too." Aaron nodded to her and turned away.  
  
"Aaron?" Her calling him by his first name stopped him in the doorway. "Thank you." Her voice broke on the word and Aaron nodded again. But even as he exited the hospital room, he knew it couldn't end like this. Maybe he should have, but now that Elle was here, in his life again- despite the circumstances- he didn't want to let her go so easy this time.  
  
Aaron knew that she wouldn't want to go back to her house and that she'd need someone to pick her up from the hospital. He resolved to be the one who was there, even as he called to get a room set up for her at the same hotel he was staying at.  
  
&             &             &  
  
With a relatively quick call to Penelope, Aaron was able to get Annie's number- as he assumed she would be the one picking Elle up. He had not seen evidence of her having any other close friends. Annie was just as sweet on the phone as she had been when Aaron had met her. She seemed to know at least something of their previous relationship, or maybe Elle's feelings on him, as she seemed excited at the prospect that he wanted to pick her up from the hospital.  
  
He met Annie at the mall so she could pick out some clothes for Elle to wear, since her apartment was still cordoned off as a crime scene, and then went on his way. Annie was excited the whole time, the sadness lifted now that her friend had been brought home safely. He'd seen her at the hospital a few times, when she'd been visiting Elle, chattering excitedly about whatever she could think of.  
  
Aaron liked Annie, he decided. She was a good friend.  
  
He arrived at the hospital before her check out time and, in spite of feeling nervous, went in without hesitation. Elle was still eating breakfast but she looked up when Aaron entered. He could almost see the temper flare in her eyes.  
  
"I told you-" Elle started and Aaron held a hand up to silence her. It was almost like working together again as she pressed her mouth in to a tight line, but did quiet to let him speak. Her eyes narrowed.  
  
"I know you told me to leave, but I can't do that, Elle," Aaron told her. "I have let a lot of good things in my life slip away because I couldn't dedicate the time and energy I needed to them. Because I made mistakes by not following my instincts and making decisions with my head." He breathed out slowly.  
  
"I'm not expecting anything from you, but I want to help you. And if nothing else, I want to put the past behind us." Aaron was sincere. He couldn't just leave her now.  
  
"I had Annie help me find something for you to wear and your house is still in disarray," Aaron told her, handing her the bag. "I booked a room for you to stay in while they finish processing it." Aaron's gaze slid away.  
  
"I know I did not do right by you, in the wake of you being shot by Garner." Aaron struggled with the words. Even though they were the absolute truth, admitting it aloud was more difficult than he thought it would be. Aaron had considered these words before, what he might say if he met Elle again, but the reality was a lot more painful. "I should have been there for you more. You shouldn't have had to wake up to Jason at your bedside. I know you had to be counting on me to be there and I wasn't."  
  
Elle's expression was unreadable when Aaron looked at her again.  
  
"I regret that. You left before I could make it right." Not that there was anything to _fix_ that. "I let you down then, but it isn't going to happen like that this time."  
  
"Hotch," Elle's voice was almost a whisper.  
  
"I'm not going to leave you on your own this time, Elle. I promise." Aaron said. He was being mindful, keeping his distance. Elle didn't respond though, just quietly took the bag with her clothes in them and slipped in to the bathroom to change. Aaron looked at the closed door.  
  
He wasn't sure if it had helped. If it had worked at all. He had wanted to make things right, but years had passed, and any hope of salvaging anything could be long gone. But she did still have his number in her phone and a picture of them together.  
  
Even if it was just salvaging a friendship, Aaron didn't want things to keep being the way that they had been. He sighed and sat down on the plastic chair in the room and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. Things had changed, they always did. He and Elle had changed. But that didn't mean that there wasn't anything there, still.  
  
Aaron's heart still fluttered when he saw her.  
  
She emerged from the bathroom with her hair brushed and her clothes changed, hospital gown balled up. She tossed it on to the bed. Aaron stood as she steadied herself with a hand on the knob to the bathroom door.  
  
"That doesn't change what happened," Elle said. Aaron nodded.  
  
"I'm aware," Aaron said with a slight smile. Elle actually smiled back at him this time, small, but he could see it twinkle in her eyes and then she sighed with her smile fading. She looked away from him, fingers drumming lightly.  
  
"Things aren't going to be the same; you can't expect to walk in here after five years and just… things to pick up where they left off. We're not… it's not that easy anymore." Elle blinked up at him and Aaron reached out to touch her hand.  
  
She didn't pull away.  
  
"I know," Aaron said. He wanted to say more, but the nurses came in for her to sign the release forms and to give her a prescription from the doctor. She signed the appropriate forms and by the time they were done, the moment had passed.  
  
Aaron walked beside the nurse as they wheeled her out to the parking lot.  
  
"Don't you have to be back in Virginia?" Elle asked when the nurse had left and Aaron was helping her in to the car. She didn't really need it, though, and she shook him off as he did so. Aaron shook his head.  
  
"I can stay for a few days," Aaron said, "At least until your place is back in order. I'm staying at the same hotel you are." Aaron mentioned. Elle nodded.  
  
They were quiet on the ride back to the hotel, stopping only to run to the pharmacy to get her antibiotics filled. She waited in the pharmacy while Aaron browsed the paperbacks and magazines. He wanted things to be right, but they didn't fix themselves overnight.  
  
One apology was not enough to make up for the lost time, or the mistakes he'd made. Or for her leaving without a word or a trace. He wound up buying a thriller that he hadn't read before, and then took Elle out for lunch at a little café down the street from the hotel. Their conversation was mostly small talk and then silence while they ate.  
  
It wasn't exactly uncomfortable. It was a start.  
  
&             &             &  
  
Aaron helped Elle get settled in to her room once they got back to the hotel. He knew she didn't need that much help. Despite the abuse that she had endured, she had been relatively unharmed when they'd rescued her. Dehydrated and beat up, but there hadn't been anything devastatingly physically wrong. Aaron could imagine what sort of scars she carried beneath her skin due to what had happened. She wasn't happy with his help; Aaron could tell that by the way she shrugged him off when he tried to steady her.  
  
"Can I do anything for you?" Aaron asked, once she'd settled down in to the bed. Aaron wanted to help, but Elle frowned at him.  
  
"I don't think you really need to stay for a few days," Elle finally said, "I'm really fine. I could pay for this place for myself until I could go back home." Elle's voice wasn't exactly frosty, but she was unhappy still. Every line of her face and body pretty much said that. Aaron sighed a little.  
  
"Elle," Aaron's tone was gentle, "I don't have anything pressing back at home. Dave can handle the team while I'm away and Jack is in good hands." Aaron sighed a little.  
  
"You don't need to be here."  
  
"I _want_ to be."  
  
Silence reigned for several long heart beats.  
  
Elle looked away from him with an almost resigned sigh.  
  
"I didn't even want you here, this is exactly why," Elle said, her voice wasn't exactly _angry_ , but it wasn't calm either. "Don't try and pretend that you're not here out of any other reason but guilt, Aaron." Her tone had turned accusatory.  
  
"If this had just been me calling you up out of the blue, you wouldn't have come," Elle said. Aaron shook his head at her a little.  
  
"I would have," Aaron protested.  
  
"Don't lie to me," Elle interrupted him this time, snapping a little. Her hands twisted in the blankets she had pulled over her lap, "You're only here because I was in distress. Because you have this compulsion to _rescue_ me to try and minimize the way you screwed up before."  
  
Aaron saw the way her shoulders tightened, but he couldn't help but feel angry too.  
  
"You're the one who left," Aaron said, his tone low. He tried to curb the feeling; they didn't need to both be yelling right now.  
  
"Yeah, you got me _shot_ , Aaron," Elle said, her brow wrinkling, "And I left and you didn't even try and come after me. You didn't-" She cut herself off, mouth pressing in to a tight line.  
  
"You weren't even there when I woke up, Gideon was. You couldn't even be bothered to come see me in the hospital. I think you established just how much you cared with that," Elle's voice broke a little on the words and she looked away from Aaron, reaching up to wipe a hand over her eyes. "I saw where we stood, the writing was on the wall anyways."  
  
"That isn't what happened," Aaron said, "There hasn't been a single second I have not regretted sending you home, for not being more clear with Anderson, for not taking you _myself_. It was never about not caring, I couldn't stop Elle, I wanted to be there but I couldn't… I couldn't stop until he was in custody or dead."  
  
Aaron stepped towards Elle, stopping in the middle of the room. He didn't have a justification, however. He should have been there. He could have been the one to stay with Elle while she was at the hospital. Jason could have been the one to stay with the team and working the case. He knew he should have been there for her, been there for her _more_. The truth was, he could have done things differently. And he wished that he had.  
  
It didn't change the fact that she had left. Not that she was unjustified in doing so. After the fact, right after, when the Fisher King had been taken care of, Aaron had gone to clean the blood off of her walls. Jason had said she was out of surgery, that she was alright and Aaron had left her in Jason's hands. But he shouldn't have.  
  
Aaron frowned and it was almost a deflection. He wasn't blameless, but neither was she.  
  
"Then _you_ left," Aaron said, "I wanted to call you, but you were just gone. You didn't even say goodbye and I thought you wanted a clean break and I…" Aaron trailed off. He swallowed roughly. "I thought that you not even saying goodbye meant you did not want me to come after you or try and convince you to not go."  
  
Elle bit her lower lip and Aaron closed the space between himself and Elle, kneeling down at the edge of the bed. It made him have to look up at her. He put his hand atop hers, fingers curling around her palm.  
  
"I loved you too much to not respect your wishes," Aaron admitted, voice quiet. Elle looked startled all of a sudden, her lips parting a little, brows drawing in a little and she breathed in a little gasp.  
  
"You loved me?" Elle asked. She sounded drained- not just of her anger, but in general. Aaron stroked his thumb over her knuckles and dropped his gaze to their hands.  
  
"You didn't know?" Aaron was surprised she hadn't. Though he supposed he hadn't ever said it. Maybe it had started as something more passion than real feelings; but he wouldn't have continued being with her as long as he had been, while married, if he hadn't felt some genuine emotion for her. Respect and fondness had transformed to love the more time they spent together.  
  
"How could I have?" Elle said, pulling her hand away from him.  
  
"I did," Aaron said. "I still do."  
  
It felt strange to admit it, even though it was the truth. He hadn't ever thought he would see her again, so he never thought he would have to speak those words or feelings. That didn't make it less so, though. He loved her, maybe he had never stopped. Maybe his head had pushed the feelings out, but his heart hadn't been fooled.  
  
"Oh," Elle said. She wrung her hands together then and reached up, pushing her fingers in to Aaron's hair. She stroked the back of his head a little, just an idle motion. "I… I think I…" She started, but then shook her head, her fingers settling against the back of his neck.  
  
"I don't know," She finally said. She sighed out a quiet breath and shook her head again. "I don't know, Aaron."  
  
Aaron laced their fingers together, squeezing lightly.  
  
"You don't need to, this is not about that," Aaron said, "I would have come no matter what you needed. I want to stay with you for a few days." Aaron looked up at her again, her fingers feeling like they were burning his neck. Elle sighed a little.  
  
But then she nodded a little, worrying her lower lip.  
  
"I just want to be alone right now," Elle said, "But… I'll come by for dinner?" Elle tried a smile. It fell flat, but Aaron's in answer was wan as well.  
  
"Sure," Aaron said. He squeezed her hand gently and then drew back. He stood and pushed the phone closer to her bed before he left. The hotel room clicked closed behind him and he leaned against the wall and tried to steady himself some.  
  
He did still love Elle. He couldn't have expected her to love him back. Her words hadn't been a rejection, but Aaron couldn't help but feel that the days he spent with her would end in nothing but perhaps tentative friendship; at the very least, they could possibly get rid of the remaining bad blood between them.  
  
&             &             &

 

"It's weird to see you out of a suit," Elle said casually as she put her feet up on the edge of Aaron's bed. She sank down in the chair some. Aaron turned towards her, shutting the lid on his laptop as he finished reading the e-mail that Jessie had sent him.  
  
"I don't sleep in them," Aaron said with a smile. Most of the time, when they'd been together, it'd been at work. So mostly he'd gone from his suit to being naked with her. They had not really _dated_ for certain values of that word. They had dinner and watched movies together, mostly in hotel rooms and in their work clothes.  
  
"I think they all assumed you did." Elle was grinning and Aaron shook his head at her slightly. "It was a running joke, anyways. You never seemed rumpled no matter what time a call for a case came in." It was still strange to talk about the past without it bringing up that painful fight again. Aaron chuckled.  
  
"Did you want to order a movie?" Aaron asked instead and Elle nodded. Aaron leaned over the bed to hand her the remote, but she slid out of the chair and joined him on the bed. Aaron glanced to the side at her and swallowed thickly, but he gave her the remote just the same.  
  
They hadn't been this close in a long time. Elle was almost against his side, their thighs touching.  
  
"I get to choose?" Elle asked and Aaron nodded. She smiled at him again and started to flip through the list of pay-per-view movies and Aaron recalled similar nights to this. He had not forgotten. When they would curl up in bed and unwind during a case and she'd smelled like cherry blossoms and a familiar perfume. It smelled like a garden after the rain.  
  
Aaron longed to put his arm around her shoulders like old times and play idly with her hair while the movie played in the background. Sometimes, they did not watch the movie at all, they'd put it on to play and emotions would be rubbed raw from the case and there was no relaxing, really.  
  
Elle would climb on his lap and he wouldn't waste time getting his hands on her bare skin. Aaron tried to shake the images loose, shifted and laying his hands in his laps as he crossed his legs. If Elle noticed, she didn't bring it up, and just kept paging through.  
  
She finally decided on some sort of light comedic film and then ordered room service, flashing Aaron a smile. Aaron couldn't help but smile back at her. They were close, so close, and he could barely stop the memories from climbing to the surface.  
  
The movie started their opening sequence and Aaron tried to focus. He was having a hard time though.  
  
"Something's been bothering me," Aaron said, during the first ten minutes of the movie. Elle looked up at him, resting back against the headboard.  
  
"What's that?" Elle asked him.  
  
"Why was I the only name in your phone?" Aaron asked, "I couldn't figure it out." Aaron gave Elle a serious look and Elle's lips pursed lightly and she shook her head.  
  
"It was my old one, from when I lived in Virginia, I never shut it off. I couldn't…" Elle trailed off, tucking her hair behind her ear. But she didn't make like she was going to continue, instead, she was saved by the bell and she scrambled out of bed to get the room service.  
  
Aaron looked after her and stood to tip the bell hop and he took the tray to go and set it by the bed.  
  
"We don't have to talk about it," Aaron told her, noticing that she'd become uncomfortable. It was more obvious by the way she returned to the chair beside the bed, rather than back on the bed with Aaron himself. Elle gave him a quick, fake smile from the chair and curled up in it, balancing her plate on her lap.  
  
"I just thought that it would be important to keep it," Elle finally said. Aaron looked over at her when she spoke, more pushing her food around the plate. "I guess I was right." Her tone was attempting to be light, but it fell a little flat, there. Aaron nodded anyways.  
  
"You could have called me whenever you needed," Aaron told her. Elle shook her head.  
  
"It doesn't matter now, does it?" She asked, "I didn't. Well, I did but… I couldn't go through with it after. You know." Elle sighed a little, her fork scraped against the plate.  
  
"I know," Aaron said, "I thought it was you calling. Before Annie."  
  
Elle made a quiet noise of agreement. Aaron let the conversation die after that, eating in silence as the movie played. Halfway through it, Elle excused herself back to her own room and Aaron sighed heavily, clicking the television off. This wasn't nearly as easy as he'd thought it was going to be. Not that he had thought that it would be effortless, but he thought they'd be able to sink back in to it.  
  
The friendship they'd had before. But it seemed like everything was a step forward and two back. He probably shouldn't have brought the phone up.  
  
He wished she had called him sooner. Aaron knew they had a lot of lost time now, a lot of regrets that had long gone unanswered. He opened his laptop again to send Jessie and e-mail and read the update that Dave had sent him about the happenings back at the BAU.  
  
He sent an e-mail back tentatively saying that he'd probably be back sooner, rather than later.  
  
&             &             &  
  
It was late, probably around four in the morning, when a rapid knock broke through Aaron's haze of sleep. At first he thought he'd imagined it. He closed his eyes again and made a frustrated little noise as he settled back in to the sheets to go back to sleep. The knocking came again and Aaron threw the blankets off and stalked to the door. He answered the door in his boxers; the hand that he'd answered the door with held his gun, just in case.  
  
"I couldn't sleep," Elle said. She had the blanket from her room draped over her shoulders. Aaron stepped aside to her in, clicking the light on as he did so. He shut the door behind her and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, gun clattering to the side table as he adjusted to the light.  
  
"Yeah?" Aaron asked, "That is pretty normal after-" He cut himself off, of course she knew that. He could tell because of the look she was leveling at him.  
  
"Sorry," Aaron said and he guided her to the edge of the bed, letting her sit there. He sat next to her, covering a yawn and then sliding his arm around her shoulders and pulling her to his side.  
  
"It's alright, Elle," Aaron told her. He was sure it was nightmares, dwelling on what had happened to her. Elle was quiet, but she eventually turned towards him a little and slipped her arms around him, burying her face against his chest. Aaron's fingers curled in to her hair and he held her close to him.  
  
"I've got you." Aaron stroked her hair, then a line down her back, being as comforting as possible. Elle wasn't crying, but Aaron could feel her shaking slightly against him. He murmured things in to her hair, trying to calm her down.  
  
He knew this feeling well, in the wake of everything with Foyet; he'd barely been able to sleep. He'd spent hours staring at the ceiling and recoiling at the shadows around his bed for fear that he was lurking in them. Even killing him hadn't completely banished the nightmares. Sometimes he'd still get them- waking up panicked and afraid with his heart hammering in his chest.  
  
Of course, Elle did not know how intimately he knew this situation. He kept reassuring her, until he felt her weight more heavily against his side. The shaking stopped and he could feel her breathing steadying and evening out. Aaron sighed softly and held her a little closer, carefully inching back to rest against the headboard and not strain his back.  
  
He eventually fell back to sleep, sitting up, head tilted back against the headboard. When he woke up in the morning, Elle was gone. Aaron sighed, laying down and stretching his back some over the length of the bed. He dressed and went to Elle's room.  
  
She answered, hair damp from a shower, and she gave him a quick smile.  
  
"Want to grab breakfast?" Aaron asked and Elle nodded.  
  
"Just give me a minute to get dressed."  
  
Aaron stepped out in to the hall, leaning against the wall as he waited for her. He took her arm when she came out, linking them together. It made Elle laugh anyways, and the strange clench in his chest from before returned. He tried to ignore it.  
  
&             &             &  
  
"When are you going back to Virginia?" Elle asked him. Aaron was surprised. It'd been almost a week, but Strauss had told him to take all the personal time he needed, and the updates he was getting from both Jessie and Dave made him confident that things were going well with Jack. Penelope sent him updates on the team and he really was not in a hurry to get back. He was enjoying his time with Elle.  
  
They had gone out to lunch and were in the park, currently, sitting on the edge of a fountain.  
  
"I should go back within the next few days," Aaron admitted, "I think that Dave is sick of being the boss and Jessie says that Jack has been asking about me."  
  
"You didn't have to take so much time off for me," Elle said. Aaron shrugged a little, turning slightly towards her.  
  
"It was not a problem."  
  
Elle smiled at him, bright and genuine.  
  
"We should go out tonight," Elle said after a moment, as Aaron laced their fingers together.

"Yeah," Aaron agreed without hesitation. He didn't think there was much he would deny her. They were just friends, of course. He loved her, but she hadn't exactly said it back. He wasn't upset by this; she couldn't change the way he felt any more than he could. Elle was smiling at him again.  
  
Aaron loved her smile.  
  
"You think it's a good idea?" Elle asked. Aaron nodded at her, squeezing her fingers in his own.  
  
"Of course I do," Aaron said, "I don't see why it wouldn't be." Elle bumped her knee in to his. Of course, Aaron did know there were certain reasons why it wasn't a great idea. He had to go back to Virginia, they still had a few things that they needed to deal with; but their relationship had smoothed out some. Spending this time together, it was almost like old times.  
  
Better than old times, somewhat. Before they wouldn't have been able to just sit out at the park together holding hands. They weren't really _together_ right now, but it seemed to be going that way, since Elle wanted to go _out_. In a tone that suggested maybe she wanted a date. An _actual_ one. Different than the pay-per-view movies and room service ones from before.  
  
"I need to meet Annie for coffee, I promised I would, but how about we get dinner or something. We can go someplace nice, I'll even wear a dress." She smiled at him. Aaron nodded a little.  
  
"I'll make a reservation," Aaron said. Elle grinned and stood, steadying herself on Aaron's shoulder. She headed off to meet Annie. Aaron smiled after her and sighed as she walked away. But he stood up from the edge of the fountain and headed back towards the hotel.  
  
He found a nice restaurant where they could go to for the evening and made a reservation. It was probably too much, but he went to go and buy Elle a bouquet of roses to present at their date. He sent her a message that he would come and get her at seven and he spent that time getting ready.  
  
He carefully ironed his dress shirt and then put on his suit and tie. Elle met him at his door, dressed in a cocktail dress, in a dark green. Aaron gave her the roses and a kiss on the cheek, which was absolutely worth it for the flush of color that stole over her cheeks.  
  
The restaurant was nice, with a romantic atmosphere- the lighting was soft, with quiet music playing in the background. Aaron ordered a bottle of wine and sat close to Elle as they looked at the menu together. They ordered a few different things- appetizers and entrees and desserts.  
  
They sat too close. Elle's knee kept brushing against Aaron's, but it was obviously purposeful. Aaron didn't mind at all. Her shoulder bumped in to his. It was a nice date, though. Elle stole food from his plate with a mischievous smile and they shared most of a bottle of wine.  
  
After dinner and dessert, they went to the movies. Which was- kind of amusing, considering they were dressed up for the nice restaurant still, and the movie they'd gone to see was filled with quite a few teenagers and young adults. They shared popcorn and Elle pushed the arm divider up so she could tuck herself against Aaron's side as they watched.  
  
Aaron put his arm around her, playing with the ends of her hair idly as they watched the movie. He noticed her looking at him some times, tilting her head up a little. Aaron looked down at her too, thinking about kissing her. It seemed like the moment would be right; but then she turned away and he thought he might have missed his chance.  
  
The movie was only mildly enjoyable, but it was made more enjoyable by the fact that Elle had been with him. They walked through the park on their way back to the hotel. Aaron reached out to take her hand again.  
  
"Walking in heels is a pain," Elle said. But they got back to the hotel with no incidents and Aaron walked her to the door.  
  
"I had fun tonight," Elle said. Aaron nodded.  
  
"Me too, thank you," Aaron said. He stood with her, one hand braced on the wall as she worked on unlocking the door. She paused though in the middle of it, and turned to look at Aaron. She looked up at him, with her lashes lowered and her lips parted slightly. Aaron knew those signs. He breathed in slowly.  
  
But before he could move in, she did. Her hand rested on his shoulder and she stood up on her toes. Her other arm slid around his neck and their lips met. Kissing Elle was like riding a bike, and he fell back in to it easily. Aaron wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her in closer.  
  
Her lips parted under his and Aaron pressed the kiss deeper. His hand slid up her back, fingers tangling in her hair again. It was almost perfect- just like he remembered and even better, because he had lost her once. But here she was, back again with him.  
  
When they parted, Aaron's cheeks felt hot, his breath coming a little shorter. Elle's smile was wide, and she ducked her head a little. He really liked kissing her and he wanted, suddenly, to do _more_. He knew it was too soon and he tried to push the feeling aside. He did with middling success and watched Elle as she turned back to the door. He could smell her shampoo.  
  
"Good night, Aaron," Elle said, finishing unlocking her door and slipping inside. Aaron waited until he heard the door click shut before he went to his own room. He touched his lips lightly before he opened his door and went inside. He sighed quietly as the door shut behind him.  
  
He wasn't going to lose her again, Aaron decided. He knew he'd have to go home soon, but he wasn't prepared to give her up. Aaron sat on the edge of his bed and contemplated what to do. Aaron would have to give it some more thought tomorrow. They could figure this out, though.  
  
It didn't have to end just because he went home.  
  
&             &             &  
  
Aaron woke up the following morning, feeling a little better about this thing with Elle. Their date had been a success, he could still remember the way she'd kissed him at the end of the night. He stretched languidly and saw his phone was blinking with a text message. It hadn't made a sound, so he knew it wasn't an emergency.  
  
The text was from Dave and Aaron chuckled a little as he read it.  
  
 _please come home, they're driving me crazy i might retire again_.  
  
Aaron grabbed his laptop and opened it up. He needed to spend some time catching up on work e-mails anyways and the morning was a good time for it anyways. Aaron was in a pretty good mood because of the previous night. He wanted- well, he was _hoping_ that it meant that they were going to be able to move beyond from their past.  
  
He wasn't sure if there was a real hope from them. Because he was going to have to go home and she obviously had her life here. But he wasn't thinking about the bad things, this time. He read a few e-mails and replied to the work ones, and the one to Jessie about Jack.  
  
He missed home, too, though. Aaron wished he could bring Elle back with him, although that was not exactly something that he was going to be able to do. It was still early in California, but he grabbed his cell phone and called Jessie to talk to Jack.  
  
It was nice to hear his voice again and he talked about what they'd done over the past few days, excited, but definitely wanting Aaron to come home. He kept talking about places and things he wanted to show Aaron. The conversation was nice and made Aaron feel better about maybe staying another day or two.  
  
Probably not though. He hung up the phone when he finished talking to Jack and went to go shower. By the time he was finished up, there was knocking on his door and Aaron pulled on a pair of boxers before he answered the door. It was Elle and she had breakfast. Aaron stepped aside to let her in.  
  
"My house has finally been cleared for me to go home," Elle said as she handed him a cup of coffee. Aaron shut the door behind him and he smiled at her.  
  
"Are you ready to go home?" Aaron asked her. He perched on the edge of his bed and gestured for Elle to join him. She nodded, a little enthusiastic.  
  
"It probably needs a good cleaning, but Annie said she'd come and help me clean it up, so that'll be something." Elle smiled, bumping her shoulder against Aaron's as she sat next to him. Aaron sipped his coffee as she handed him a bagel.  
  
"So, you'll be pretty busy," Aaron said. It wasn't a question, but Elle nodded again anyways. "I'm going to have to go back to Quantico."  Aaron frowned a little. He wanted to go home- he missed it- but he wasn't really thrilled about leaving.  
  
"I thought it'd be soon," Elle admitted. She sounded disappointed. She shrugged her shoulders a little. "Are you leaving tonight?" She asked. Aaron shook his head. He'd ordered a ticket when he'd been talking to Jack. Elle's smile faded some.  
  
"Tomorrow I'm going to take a late flight," Aaron said, "I was about to come and get you when you knocked on the door."  
  
"So, this is it?" Elle asked.  
  
"It doesn't have to be," Aaron said, "We have phones and e-mail and…" Well, California was pretty far away, but that didn't mean he wouldn't make the effort. Long distance wasn't easy, but his job took him all over anyways and there would be a lot of keeping in touch those ways anyways.  
  
"I know it won't be easy, but I want to try. I don't want it to end like this." Aaron finished. He smiled at her a little. Elle nodded a little, but she looked a little skeptical.  
  
"We have time here still. We can make this work, Elle." He didn't know who he was trying to convince. He couldn't uproot his life to transfer to California- but he couldn't ask Elle to do that for him either. "We can see how it goes, I can visit when I have time off. You can visit when I'm at home. It can work, it'll take some effort but I… I think we should give it a try."  
  
"Yeah?" Elle said and she smiled at him, just a small one. "Well, it doesn't hurt to try. But that's not until tomorrow." Elle looked thoughtful.  
  
"You want to come help me move some heavy furniture?" She asked. Aaron's expression turned serious then- he'd cleaned up the aftermath of an attack on Elle before. He reached out to squeeze her hand.  
  
"Of course I'll help." Aaron grinned at her. Elle smiled back at him.  
  
"Finish your breakfast then, you're going to need your energy."  
  
&             &             &  
  
Over the next day and a half, Aaron helped Elle with putting her house back in to order. It wasn't very _hard_ work, since mostly he was on hand to help move furniture, while Elle went through her things and made sense of where they were supposed to go. Aaron could be a good listener though and he followed her instructions to make that go as fast as possible.  
  
They spent a lot of time talking while they worked.  
  
There were years to catch up on- what Elle had been doing since she had left. Which had been traveling, she mentioned staying with her family for a time while she recovered from her injuries, and a serious boyfriend she had had for a year while she'd been living in New York. That she had settled in California when she'd visited with her cousins.  
  
"I had money saved up to get this place while I looked for a job, I did some bartending in New York and took some classes, so Cherry Bounce called me back and the rest is history." Elle shrugged a little as she hung clothes up in her closet. Aaron was putting them on hangars.  
  
Aaron told Elle about what had happened with the team- Jason's departure and Emily, who she had met at the hospital, who'd joined the team after Elle had left. He knew that she'd want to know about them, even though they had not kept in touch. Then Aaron slid in to more personal stories.  
  
About Foyet and Haley and Jack. It was difficult to talk about- but a far as being attacked in one's home, at least Elle could understand that particular brand of terror. Not that Aaron wished it on her at all, but she seemed to know the right thing to say to make it so the words came to him easier. It'd been around two years, now, but it didn't make it less painful.  
  
Elle understood though and let Aaron figure his way through the conversation. It was strange to navigate- but he moved in to talking about Jack and how he was doing, and tried to put the more painful part of the memories in the background.  
  
That evening, they went out to dinner again. This place was a little more laid back, they ate out on the patio, where a breeze was blowing the warm air there.  
  
"When does your flight leave?" Elle asked him, her foot kept knocking in to his under the table and it made him smile. But the question did lessen his good humor some. His smile only faded a little though and he grabbed his phone to check the e-mail.  
  
"Ten," Aaron answered, "I have to finish packing, too." Aaron admitted. Elle nodded. She looked disappointed; Aaron did not blame her really. He was some too. Aaron wanted to go home, but this had been a mostly enjoyable week. Reconnecting with Elle had been fantastic.  
  
The fact that she was willing to try, even though they'd be on opposite sides of the country made him feel confident about this. That they were both willing to make an effort, that had to say something. He took her hand in his and squeezed, leaning in to brush a kiss to her cheek.  
  
"It'll be alright," Aaron reassured her. He didn't know if it would be. What he _wanted_ and what the reality would be wasn't necessarily going to match up. He was sure though, as long as they both tried hard enough. Elle smiled at him and laid her head against his shoulder.  
  
"I'm glad you came," Elle said after a moment. Aaron turned to her, looking down at her face. He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear.  
  
"Me too," Aaron said. He was glad that Annie had disregarded Elle's orders and called him in to help. He was glad that Elle was safe. That he had been able to see her again and, at the very least, smooth a few things over with her. It wasn't perfect, but they both were interested in getting back together.  
  
"Let me drive you to the airport, it'll let us spend a little more time together. I'll even help you pack."  
  
"Alright, I can drop the car off early," Aaron said, "I like that plan." Aaron smiled at her, it came easier with her than it had in a long time. Elle reached up and slid her hand into his hair briefly, letting her nails scrape against his scalp some. He let out a quiet sigh and closed his eyes.  
  
"I'm going to miss you," Aaron admitted. Elle bumped him with her knee again.  
  
"None of that talk right now," Elle chastised him. When they returned to his hotel room, they did less packing, and more kissing. It didn't matter, Aaron knew. He could throw everything in his suit case and go bag and sort it out later. It was much more important to spend these precious moments with Elle.  
  
"I'll call you as soon as I land," Aaron promised. But they couldn't linger on a goodbye as Aaron was almost late for his plane. He rushed through, but he really felt like he was leaving a part of himself here. He tried to ignore that niggling feeling though, because there was no reason for him to feel too sad.  
  
They'd keep in contact and do the best approximation they could of a relationship while they weren't together and work extra hard on making up that time when they were.  
  
Aaron didn't stop thinking about her the entire way home and he called her as soon as he was in a place where he could. "I already miss you," He said as he got his luggage from baggage claim. She laughed over the phone and the way it filtered through- tinny and distant- made him ache. They really hadn't had enough time together, in Aaron's opinion.  
  
And though he was glad to be going home, he almost wished he had missed his flight, so they could have had a few more hours. Elle sounded tired though- which made sense, it was after three in Los Angeles.  
  
"I'll call you tomorrow," Aaron promised her once he was in the parking lot. He was glad to be behind the wheel of his own car again. He pushed the discontented feelings away by thinking about sleeping in his own bed and seeing Jack again.  
  
At least since it was early in Virginia, he didn't have to wait until the following day to pick Jack up from Jessie's. He was exhausted, but he sacrificed sleep in favor of spending the day with Jack and listening to his "adventures" with Aunt Jessie and his cousin Neil.  
  
&             &             &  
  
The long distance thing was not working out as well as Aaron had thought it would. Between his job and traveling around the country for cases, he wasn't as good at keeping in touch as he ought to have been. He could tell, sometimes, when he did manage to talk to Elle.  
  
He could see her disappointment when they talked on a Skype chat, or hear it in her voice when they talked on the phone. Even the few times he had been in California for work, he hadn't been able to take the time to see her. It made things difficult.  
  
Their Skype calls were not as disastrous, since they both had to be there, they tended to set up times for that. But even then, it sometimes failed. Aaron sometimes worked while they were talking, getting distracted by crime scenes and victimology and working the profile.  
  
He didn't even notice, sometimes, that it would upset her. As he would sink in to just giving her stock answers, getting sort of lost in figuring things out.  
  
Aaron couldn't help it. He wanted things to work out with Elle, but he was dedicated to his job. She had seen what he had seen and should have been more understanding. Aaron assumed she was. He was currently in Maine, working on a case dealing with a serial arsonist.  
  
"You aren't going to be coming out this weekend then?" Elle asked him. Aaron had a map spread out in front of him, dots colored in with the work that Spencer had done earlier on the geographical profile. He barely heard her question, but he flicked his gaze to the screen briefly.  
  
"I don't think so," Aaron said as he traced a line from one point to the other. Spencer had showed him the pattern earlier, but he marked it in lightly with pencil for reference, frowning when he heard Elle sigh over the microphone. Aaron looked up at her again.  
  
"Is everything alright?" Aaron asked.  
  
"It's fine," Elle said, in a tone of voice that indicated it wasn't. Aaron frowned at her. She was not quite looking in to the camera anymore. So he dropped his gaze back down to the map. It was quiet for a few moments and then he heard Elle's nails click on the table.  
  
"Do you know when you'll be able to make time, then?" Elle asked. Aaron looked up again and his brow furrowed. Aaron glanced down at the map and then back up to Elle.  
  
"Maybe next weekend? I'm not sure," Aaron told her. There was another moment of silence and Aaron figured he might have said the wrong thing. When he looked up, Elle was giving him a strange sort of look, with her brows lowered and her mouth pressed in to a thin line.  
  
"How about… I call you when I get done?" Aaron suggested, "I promise I can come out and see you, but this case, I can't just leave." Elle had to understand that at least.  
  
"Of course," Elle said. Her voice was tight though. "Bye, Aaron."  
  
Aaron frowned as the chat window closer out, the video screen going dead. Aaron scrubbed a hand roughly over his chin and considered calling her back. Of course, he couldn't help that there was a case or that his job was demanding. But for several long moments, he sat in silence and contemplated what to do- whether it would be to call her again.  
  
But there was a knock on the door of his hotel room, followed by Dave and Derek with what they thought could be an interesting lead and he left to pursue that. His silence after her hang-up probably said more than his words could have. He vowed to call her when he got the chance again.    
  
&             &             &  
  
It was Monday, there were no pressing cases, and he was in his office working on the paperwork that had accumulated. Budgets and receipts and after action reports, all needing to be checked and signed off and submitted to Strauss before the end of the day. He was working diligently enough, but Dave coming in to his office interrupted him. Aaron looked up in vague annoyance, eyes narrowing.  
  
"You have a visitor, I think," Dave said, leaning on the doorjamb. Aaron's expression turned to curiosity.  
  
"You don't know?" Aaron asked. Dave huffed out laughter at that.  
  
"She was waylaid by Penelope in the bullpen," Dave explained, "It's that girl of yours, from back in California." Aaron looked suddenly surprised, dark eyes going a little wide, and he almost knocked his chair over when he stood. Dave looked _amused_ ; Aaron didn't find it as funny.  
  
He moved around him out the door where Elle was in the bullpen, arms resting on the top of Spencer's cubicle, talking to Penelope who was clutching a mug to her chest like a lifeline. Derek was nearby and Spencer too; Aaron knew they hadn't taken her leaving easy. Emily was there, too, smiling in that familiar open way she had as Elle talked to them about something.  
  
Aaron approached, Dave following close behind.  
  
"Elle? What're you doing here?" Aaron asked. He knew he shouldn't have interrupted her, but Aaron was curious. When they'd spoken on the phone the night before, she'd given no indication that she was going to be in Virginia. Elle turned towards him and smiled.  
  
   
"I'm sorry to surprise you like this, Aaron," Elle said, "But I thought we needed to talk and over the phone just wasn't going to cut it." Aaron frowned a little, wondering if this was going to be a break-up. He had thought that things were going well, since that fight that they had had over his work, things had settled in to what Aaron had thought was a completely working relationship. As well at it could be working over the internet and the phone. Aaron nodded though.  
  
"Do you want to step into my office?" Aaron asked. Elle glanced up at it, but then shook her head.  
  
"No, actually, I came to take you out for lunch." Elle grinned at him and Aaron couldn't help but smile. Close to her, like this, it was easy to fall in to being her boyfriend.  
  
"I guess I'm taking an early lunch," Aaron said, looking amused. Elle's smile widened fractionally. She looked happy and Aaron was glad to make her look like that. He excused himself briefly to his office to grab his keys and then they headed out.  
  
"Were you just in the neighborhood?" Aaron teased her. He opened the door for her and she let him pick the restaurant- a Chinese place they'd gone to a lot when she'd still been working at the bureau. Elle shook her head a little and smoothed invisible wrinkles along her pant leg.  
  
"I thought I'd come stay in Virginia for a while," Elle explained as he drove. "I know you can't really come out to California as much as we'd both like and I really like you Aaron. I liked _us_. I still like us. And I think we can be something _real_ , but I think I need to be closer."  
  
Aaron glanced at her when they were at a light. Elle reached over and put her hand on top of his, squeezing gently as she did so.  
  
"Obviously I don't want to make any rash decisions, but I have some time saved up for vacation and I thought I'd stay here for a couple of weeks and see if we can make this work." She glanced at him a little more and Aaron wasn't entirely sure what to say.  
  
He thought it was a great idea, though. The thought of her being here, being _close_ was pleasant. That he could call her up for dinner or a cup of coffee or drinks. Where they could _date_ and actually be a couple without the distance and- it wasn't that long distance relationships didn't work, it just hadn't _entirely_ for them.  
  
"That does seem like a good idea," Aaron said after a moment, turning his hand so he could lace their fingers together. He wanted to be close to her. It was a start at any rate and they could build up from here and see how it went. Elle had come up with the idea, had _come here_. In Aaron's mind, that meant a lot too. That they were both in this together and for real. He squeezed her hand in his own.  
  
As they continued towards the restaurant, Aaron thought of how this was the beginning of an even greater thing. Aaron wasn't sure if it was going to work out, since their relationship now would be different than when it was over the phone, or even like it had been when they'd been together before.  
  
&             &             &  
  
Aaron liked the way it felt with Elle curled up next to him. Her head pillowed against his shoulder, hair tickling his bare skin, and her breath over his chest. Her fingers were tracing idly through the hair on his chest. These past few nights, just being able to go to her, to take her out to dinner or meet her for lunch. And being _with_ her again was familiar almost. Comfortable.  
  
It felt the same way it used to, on the nights that she did sleep in the same bed as him, sneaking out in the early mornings. Except in this, they could stay there together. Aaron could run his fingers through her hair and hold her tightly, because she wouldn't need to leave in the morning.  
  
When Aaron turned his head, her eyes were closed, but she was awake, her fingers still moving. He kissed Elle lightly and then looked back up at the ceiling.  
  
"I think you should meet Jack," Aaron said after a moment, "I mean officially. I know you 'met' him when he was just a baby." It was taking a big step for Aaron to introduce Elle to his son; it was significant.  
  
"Really?" Elle sounded somewhat surprised, her eyebrows raising just a little. Aaron didn't know why she was incredulous, she'd moved here temporarily to be with him and he wanted to share his life with her. Maybe it wouldn't completely work out, when she went back to her home and job in California.  
  
But he hadn't been lying to her when he'd said he loved her. That hadn't changed, even over the years that they had been apart. Aaron reached up and laced their fingers together against his chest. Part of him wanted to ask her to stay, but he knew that would be far too soon.  
  
"Yeah, really," Aaron said. "We should make a day of it." Elle was quiet and Aaron wondered if he'd said the wrong thing. Or maybe her plans hadn't been to get that serious. It wouldn't be earth shattering, if she didn't want to share that part of his life.  
  
"That sounds like it would be nice," Elle said after a moment. Aaron smiled at her and pulled her a little bit closer to him.  
  
"It probably won't be anything major in terms of what we do," Aaron admitted, "He has his soccer game in the morning, I can pick you up after though."  
  
"No, I'd love to go to his soccer game," Elle said. Aaron wasn't sure if she really would, because of how early they were, and how it was still such a pee-wee league that they didn't even keep score. But Elle was being genuine when she said it, and it made Aaron breathe a little easier.  
  
"Alright then, I'll be there early," Aaron said. Elle smiled brightly at him, and then shifted a little. She hovered over him, her hands braced on his shoulders. She smiled down at him, hair falling in to her face. Aaron reached up and brushed it back and then slid his fingers in to her hair, pulling her down in for a kiss.  
  
Aaron's fingers twirled in the locks slightly and he felt her part her lips. He wrapped his arm around his waist and pulled her closer. Elle kissed him a little harder and his hands trailed down her back, slipping up under the shirt she was wearing.  
  
Aaron felt her shiver a little and he sighed against her lips.  
  
He'd missed her.  
  
&             &             &  
  
The following morning, Aaron picked Elle up early, for one of Jack's soccer games. It was ridiculously early, just like he'd said. They needed to be on the field at seven in the morning, so he was at her place at around quarter to seven. Jack was bouncing excitedly in the backseat. Aaron left him there, eating a liquid yogurt for breakfast, while he went to go knock on Elle's door.  
  
She answered the door after the second knock, her hair wet from the shower. She was putting her shoes on as she came out the door with him.  
  
"Morning," Aaron said, handing her a travel mug of coffee. She sipped it and grinned at him.  
  
"Good morning," She said, "You remember how I liked it!" Aaron grinned at her right back and nodded, leading her towards the car.  
  
Elle slid in to the front and turned slightly as she buckled in to smile at Jack.  
  
"Jack, this is Elle, my friend." Aaron didn't really think explaining the whole thing to Jack right now was _necessary_. After all, they weren't exactly putting a lot of labels on things right now, since they were simply trying out their relationship in the real world.  
  
"Hi, Elle," Jack said cheerfully. Aaron was always amazed, though not surprised, how good of a job Haley had done with Jack. In spite of everything, she had raised him with confidence. He liked to meet people and he was not one to shy away from doing so.  
  
"It's nice to meet you, Jack," Elle said with a smile. She reached out and shook his hand and Aaron smiled at the two of them, watching them in his peripheral vision as he headed towards where the games were going to be played.  
  
"Do you like superheroes?" Jack asked and when Elle said she didn't know much about them, Jack was more than happy to educate her on his favorites. Starting with Aaron himself, which made Elle grin and keep giving him little looks while Jack talked about it.  
  
They sat in the shade and watched as Jack played soccer. He was not doing that great, but he was having fun, obvious by the smile on his face as he played.  
  
"They don't keep score yet, it's more about teaching sportsmanship and teamwork," Aaron explained. Elle sat close to him and he had his arm around her shoulder. It was comfortable with the way she leaned on him. A few of the other parents came to introduce themselves, though it was more of a ploy to figure out who the mystery woman was.  
  
But after the game was when the real fun began. With Elle and Jack getting to know one another. It was easy to inset her in to their after game traditions. Pizza at Sammy's, where they always got pepperoni since it was the only topping that Jack liked, and then halfway through his piece, Jack went to play pinball on one of the machines over in the corner.  
  
"He's gotten so big," Elle said with a smile. Aaron nodded a little, because he knew. His boy was growing up and it seemed like it was so fast that he could barely keep up with it. "He's handsome, just like his dad." Aaron laughed a little and bumped her knee under the table.  
  
After lunch, they headed to the park, where Jack was able to convince Elle to play hide and seek with him. It was a pleasant thing for Aaron to watch, too. He wanted to sit there and watch them, where Jack would hide- not entirely well- and Elle would pretend she couldn't find him even though he was laughing loud enough for Aaron to hear him.  
  
"You should play too, daddy!" Jack called out to him and then when he got up, they determined that he was "it". It left him with his eyes closed, but he could hear them whispering to each other, laughing too, and it warmed his heart.  
  
Dinner was fast food, followed by _Aladdin_ curled up on the couch in Aaron's living room. Elle seemed to be getting along well with Jack and she indulged him as he wanted to sit on her lap to watch the movie and eat popcorn and candy. Aaron sat close to Elle on the couch.  
  
 _Aladdin_ was one of Jack's favorite movies and he sang along with the songs- a little badly and out of tune. Elle started singing along too, just as enthusiastically, because it made Jack happy when she did. Jack sort of danced on her lap and Aaron watched them, laughing quietly as he did. It was more entertaining than the movie.  
  
Jack's bed time was at nine, and it was past that by the time the movie was over, and Aaron noticed that he'd fallen asleep in Elle's lap. Aaron grinned, picking him up to put him in bed. He complained a little bit, but he mostly fell back asleep on Aaron's shoulder by the time he got him in the room.  
  
"Jack seems to like you," Aaron said to Elle when he rejoined her in the living room.  
  
"He's sweet," Elle said, "I like him too." Aaron couldn't help but smile at her when she said that and he sat down with her on the couch again. He laid his head on her shoulder, one hand resting on her knee. Elle put her hand on top of Aaron's.  
  
Aaron turned and smiled at her, leaning in to kiss her softly. He was happy that they'd gotten along well. Elle shifted them and climbed in to Aaron's lap, straddling his thighs. Aaron looked up at her and settled his hands on to her hips.  
  
"We should wait a minute," Aaron said. Because he didn't really need Jack walking in on anything. Aaron watched television with her for an hour and then they relocated to his bedroom.  
  
&             &             &  
  
The remainder of Elle's vacation days seemed to fly by. In between spending time with Jack and date nights and spending the night over in Elle's hotel room and his own work- it seemed like the hours slipped through his fingers like grains of sand. He wanted to clutch at them, as the time of her staying in Virginia came to a close.  
  
Aaron supposed that he should feel thankful that he had the time with her at all. But he was especially grateful that he hadn't gotten called away on a case on her last night there. There'd been one earlier in the week, where he'd had to go to Corpus Christi, but he had made it back in time.  
  
Jack had gone with Jessie to Florida to visit his grandparents on Haley's side. Though Aaron did miss Jack being there, the timing couldn't have been better. He wanted to do something big for her send off. He had never been more grateful for Dave's cooking lesson than this particular moment.  
  
Even though he could cook well enough on his own for him and Jack, that was different than cooking a romantic meal for a significant other. He'd gotten them tickets to go and see the symphony, too, and had asked her to dress up. It was probably overly romantic, but he wanted to leave an impression.  
  
The truth was, he was going to miss her when she left to California again. There was no telling when she'd be able to come back and his job was hectic enough, California far enough away, that coming out on weekends wasn't even really an option as much. Aaron had a feeling, just this niggling kind of one in the back of his mind, that this could be their last night together in general.  
  
It was unpleasant, but he pushed the thoughts aside in favor of making this a night to remember. So they both had this strong memory of being together, even if it didn't last beyond this night. At least Aaron could be secure in the knowledge that they had tried their best and that he hadn't let her slip away without a fight this time. Aaron regretted that he hadn't fought for her before.  
  
This didn't quite make up for it, but at least he didn't leave anything left unsaid this time.  
  
Elle arrived right on time, looking stunning as ever, with her hair done up and in a classy dress and a bright smile. When he kissed her, she didn't seem sad at all. Maybe she had faith in their ability to do this long distance in the long term.  
  
"I made dinner," Aaron said. She smiled at him, then at the table where he'd put out flowers and lit candles. Aaron watched her while she looked, the smile softening a little, eyes lowering. She reached out to take his hand, squeezing it somewhat tightly.  
  
"It looks great," Elle said and her voice was a little soft. Aaron grinned at her, pushing the imminent sadness away. The bittersweet of goodbye; they had tonight and there would be other days. He had to believe that, to swallow against the lump in his throat.  
  
The food was good though, the wine paired well, and everything turned out perfect. Elle was smiling at him across the table and the general feeling was not one of sadness. Elle made him laugh and Aaron was glad, because the way she was acting made him feel a little less like this was the end.  
  
After dinner, as Aaron was walking her to the car to head out, she stopped in the middle of the driveway, her fingers wrapping around his elbow.  
  
"I've decided to stay," Elle told him, suddenly, "I looked for a job and a place to stay while you were working and I got a call back this afternoon with a job offer, so I'm going to stay. I'll be gone for two weeks, just to give my old boss time to find someone to replace me and for me to find a place to live here."  
  
Aaron was surprised, but pleased, and he turned to face her, taking both of her hands in his own.  
  
"I don't want to stay away again, Aaron," Elle said, "I love you, too, and I want to be here with you." Elle smiled at him and Aaron couldn't help the sheer feeling of _joy_ that welled up in him at the knowledge. He would have tried hard to make it work with them on opposite sides of the country; but this was even better.  
  
Aaron tugged lightly, pulling her close to him and wrapping her up in to a tight hug. Elle's arms slid around his waist, her head resting against his chest and he just luxuriated in the feeling. She was only going to be gone for two weeks and then she'd be back in his arms.  
  
Aaron held her a little tighter. Then eased off as to not mess up the dress she was wearing.  
  
"I love you," Aaron whispered, and it felt like the first time he had ever properly _said it_ , even though he knew he'd implied it before. She shifted back a little and smiled, leaning up to kiss him. Aaron let her go after a moment, even though he still didn't want to.  
  
With that knowledge in mind, the symphony was even better than usual. Aaron didn't know if Elle had ever been to one before, but he watched her quite a bit during it. Just to see the line of her profile and the way her eyes lit up at the music.  
  
Aaron held her hand, thumb stroking lightly over her knuckles.  
  
"You look gorgeous tonight," Aaron told her, once it was over, and they were on their way back to the car. She bumped him lightly with her hip and smiled.  
  
"You're not so bad yourself," Elle said in response, slipping her arm through Aaron's while they headed back to the car. She leaned against him a little as they walked.  
  
Elle stayed the night, though goodbye sex wasn't nearly as bittersweet when it was only going to be for two weeks.  
  
When Aaron took her to the airport to the next morning, it wasn't like saying goodbye this time. Because they'd be reunited soon. 

It was only two weeks for now.  
  
Then the rest of their lives.  
  
 _"My soul feels reborn each time I see you; falling in love with you again and again."  
\- Steve Maraboli_


End file.
